First race after too long a break in our calendar. Was really looking fwd to this one, until days before the event, the weather guy was promising the worst summer heat so far. Something like 38 C / 100 F!
Saturday’s qualifying was indeed hell, even in shorts & flip flops I was about to pass out, had to keep a wet towel on my head at all times and just getting into the leathers was a pain.
On top, in the first session the battery turned out to be flat but just as the bike started to cut out, my head was already exploding in the helmet, just after five laps.
Next session, was only marginally better, bike was running OK-ish now, I still couldn’t bear it for more than 10 minutes, managed a one before last qualifying position. On top, I was trying the new 45mm CR velocity stacks I got form dynoman and motor wasn’t really pulling well at 10-12K…. Thing were not looking good.
Nature came to help though, Sunday at 05:00 AM a big storm came, brought down a huge shower and temperatures went down. Nice but it destroyed our gazebo…
My tuner friend recommended going up from 120 mains to 125 after fitting the stacks, so took the gamble for the race, hadn’t much to loose at this point.
Race started at 02:00 PM, hot but bearable now, made a decent start, stick’d with the midfield guys quite easily only to find on the second lap a fallen bike mid turn and the guy sitting shocked by the track side. Saw flags waved (only yellow), thinking the race will be surely stopped… wrong! but in the meantime I got passed by some guys so it ended up being a nice battle. Mid race, spotted three of our top 500 guys out with blown motors, the scorching qualifying sessions must have taken a toll. My Sohc was running like a champ, had some mild brake fade.
End of story, last laps I see all my club mates in the stands waving and shouting, ended up third.
After such a crazy weekend wasn’t really expecting it! Just before me, Piero (left guy in the podium pic with mv leathers...) who rides the #614 CB500 finished second but we both had to bow to one very fast Morini 500 twin. It’s unbelievable what this guy gets out of this pushrod motor.
Was nice to go back home with a tin trophy after so much suffering
TG
